The Election of 1988:
*Many republicans thought that George Bush would be a good president
after Ronald Regan.
*Democrats however that that bush becoming president was not such a good idea;
so there for they found more democrat candidates to run against bush. Michael
Dukakis and Reverend Jesse Jackson led the whole group.
*Jesse Jackson had 426 votes over Michael Dukakis.
*The democrats held the majority of the houses of congress.


The New President:
*Bush was a pilot in World War 2 and had won a medal for bravery.
*He started an oil company in Texas.
*Bush stated that he would not follow in the era of Ronald Regan.
*Bush promised to everyone a kinder more gentler nation.
*The president tried to maintain a balance with the policies of Ronald Regan
and working more closely with democratic controlled congress.

Drugs;Education; and the Environment:
*George Bush was speaking out against the stopping of illegal drugs.
*The antidrug programs would be far to exspensive.
*Bennett resigned because drug use began to drop.
  • Bob Martinez the former governor of Flordia replaced him.
  • The Ronald Regan administration cut back government programs.
  • The problem of Nuclear waste posed a threat for the environment.
*17 nuclear weapons plants were closed.
*Investigations showed that the plants were not safe because of the waste that were in them.
  • The coast of cleaning everything up cost about 200 billion dollars.

The Savings and Loan Crisis:
*The saving banks had failures on finances;such as mortgages and buying of homes.
*The government encouraged everyone to save money.
*The interest rates soared which caused low-interest and long term mortgages.
*Many S&L's went out of business.
*The S&L's were involved in planing and picking where offer high interest rates and invest their money.
*The profits would grow if the real estate stayed strong.
*Many S&L's went bankrupt because many loans were not paid.
*The Recession in New England made more saving bank failures.
*Bailing out the S&L's would cost 600 billion dollars in 10 years.

Reducing the Deficit:
*The saving and loan crisis added the growing deficit in the federal budget.
*George Bush decided not to raise taxes.
*The president and congress could not find out an easy way to cut spending.
*When the talks deadlocked the president said he would reconsider to new taxes.
*The Capitol Gains would stimulate the economy.
*The democrats were mad because they said the this would only benefit the rich investors.
*The congress and president came to a conclusion that it would cut the deficit by nearly $500 billion over 5 years.
*The plan increased taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.

The Elections of 1990:
*Congress was unwilling to make any choices to raise taxes or cut programs.
*They saw the president as a man who was unable to come up with a solution to the budget crisis.
*They need billions of dollars to bail out savings and loans institutions because of mismanagement.

Flags and the Supreme Court:
*President Bush was not happy with the supreme court.
*In 1989 the supreme court made a Texas law that burning the flag illegal.
*The flag is a protest of freedom of speech.
*People argued that burning the flag was not a freedom of speech.


CHAPTER 4:

The end of the cold war:


*The soviet dominated the governments had controlled the nations of eastern Europe
*The freedom fighters were put down because they were trying to revoke.

A Wall comes down:

*The Berlin wall came down in 1989 to reunite East and West Berlin,
also to end all of communism, it was the end of the cold war.

The American response:

*Congress wanted to make peace dividend between everyone because the Americans were not happy with the
Berlin wall coming down.

New Directions in Latin America:
*Bush didn't do much with Latin America like Ronald Regan did, but
instead the Bush Administration set up a Bipartisan agreement with congress.
*Relations with Nicaragua and the United States stayed the same and remained
uncertain.

**Invasion of Panama:
* Panama was a banking center and shipping point for major drug dealers.
  • The Federal court indicted Noriega on drug smuggling charges and he
became defiant.
*On December 20th Bush sent the American Military into Panama to try and
stop the drug uses.


Unrest in China:
* In 1989 Dissident Chinese students started a campaign for democratic reforms.
*President Bush disapproved for the return of any repression.

A Policy Toward South America:**

  • economic sanctions- or limits on trade and investment, to pressure the South
African government the end apartheid.
  • Divestiture: Stock companies that operated in South Africa.

War clouds in the Middle East:
*The Middle East was a threat to world peace.
  • In 1990 Saddam Hussein built his own military and
then had them invade Kuwait.

A Complex Threat:
*The industrial nations had become more dependent on oil from Persian Gulf.

The World responds: